Since almost all forms of life need water to survive, the improvement of water quality in decontamination systems has typically been a subject of significant interest. As a result, treatment systems and techniques for removing contaminants from contaminated fluids have been developed and refined over time. Prior approaches have included water treatment by applying various microorganisms, enzymes and nutrients for the microorganisms in water. Other approaches involve placing chemicals in the contaminated fluids, such as chlorine, in an effort to decontaminate supplies. Some such systems have proved to be somewhat successful; however, sever deficiencies in each approach may still be prominent.
Some more advanced treatment systems and techniques include treatments using a photolytic or a photocatalytic process. Common photocatalytic treatment methods typically make use of a technique by which a photocatalyst is bonded to contaminants in order to destroy such biomaterials. Specifically, photocatalytic reactions are caused by irradiating, such as by ultraviolet light, on the fixed photocatalyst so as to activate it. Resulting photocatalytic reactions bring about destruction of contaminants, such as volatile organic contaminants or other biologically harmful compounds that are in close proximity to the activated photocatalyst.
This irradiation may be provided by a lamp assembly in which a tubular lamp, protected by a transparent sleeve, is inserted in a cell of a photocatalytic reactor to irradiate contaminated fluid passing through that cell. Such a lamp assembly and photocatalytic reactor may be seen in U.S. Pat. No. 5,554,300 and U.S. Published Patent Application No. 2005/0211641, both of which are commonly assigned with the present disclosure and incorporated herein by reference in their entirety for all purposes. Unfortunately, even the advanced lamp assembly designs used with such system can prove to be bulky and complex in wiring, adding to both the size of the photocatalytic equipment, as well as to the overall cost of manufacturing such a system. Accordingly, what is need is a advantageous lamp assembly design that may be used with such photocatalytic equipment, that improves the efficiency in both operation and manufacturing of the overall system.